to the Second World War and the following austerity, two houses often shared one of the few available lines with party lines (for example The Dingle had the number Chew Magna 81 from 1931 and the neighbouring North Hill Cottage later shared the line with Chew Magna 1081). In the late 1950s Bristol's automatic Strowger Bedminster exchange 66xxxx numbers served the hamlet, changing later to 63xxxx and yet later 963xxxx. Subscriber Trunk Dialling became available on 5 December 1958 to call a few UK cities. Bristol had the dialling code 0BR2 progressively changing to 0272 (the same on the dial as 0BR2), and then 0117 plus 7-digit Bristol numbers. During the lead up to Christmas 1962 there were light falls of snow. Around Christmas Eve, after a slight thaw, freezing started again with significant snowfalls during Boxing Day, later to be known as ‘The Big Freeze of 1963’. The previously partially-melted light and fluffy snow formed dense solid ice on the thin copper telephone lines increasing their weight. This and fresh snowfalls stretched the copper wires until they reached the ground. The multiple overhead open-wire phone lines were after the winter replaced by a single multi-core cable suspended from the poles. A few years later the cable was buried in the fields north of East Dundry Lane and the poles removed. A fibre link to East Dundry was made in the early 2020s underground west-to-east in the fields on the north side of East Dundry Lane, and distributed overhead to most of East Dundry properties. Tithes The Tithe Acts of 1936 and 1951 established the compulsory redemption of English tithes by the state where the annual amounts payable were less than £1, so abolishing the bureaucracy and costs of collecting small sums of money. This applied to East Dundry as elsewhere. Notable residents The plant pathologist Lawrence Ogilvie lived in The Dingle (now Dingle House). The sculptress Doris Kathleen Flinn lived in The Rookery. References External links Parish website Hamlets in Somerset